Originally Posted by
EWR764
This is pretty easy. I would consider large widebodies 747, 777, 787. The 767 fleet from 2011-2020 declined by 5 total frames (-8 762, +3 763).
United at YE2011 had the following:
23 747-400
55 777-200ER
19 777-200
Total 97
YE2016
20 747-400
2 777-300ER
55 777-200ER
19 777-200
18 787-9
12 787-8
Total 126
YE2019
20 777-300ER (2 more delivered in 2020)
55 777-200ER
19 777-200
11 787-10 (2 more delivered so far in 2020, 12 on order)
25 787-9 (5 more delivered so far in 2020, 8 on order)
12 787-8
Total 142 (151 on property currently, 20 more on order for 171, unlikely to ever reach that number due to COVID-19, sadly)
Numbers don't lie.
The only aircraft on this list being delivered that have more than 300 seats are the 77W and 781. The 77W largely went to replacing the 747 so the only real growth of 300+ seat aircraft are the 11 781s.
In addition, the non-ER 777s should be removed if this is a comparison of long-haul international aircraft as these aircraft were pretty much seeing nothing other than domestic Hawaii and inter-hub service post-merger.